Transcript Reconstruction

Reconstruction
Re-unifying the USA
What was reconstruction?
• Rebuilding the South after the Civil War
• Reconstruction would determine:
– How defeated the south was
– How free African Americans really were
Presidential Reconstruction
• Lincoln’s Plan
– Amnesty – Loyalty oath
– 10% Plan
• Johnson’s Plan
– Disqualify former Confederate leaders from holding
office
– Allowed states to rejoin freely
– Pardoned thousands of southerners
– Allowed south to handle freedmen as they saw fit
TEN PERCENT PLAN
• Since Lincoln had always believed
the prime purpose of the war had
been to preserve the Union, he
thought that, now that it was over,
all effort should be made to
restoring the Union and ending the
bitterness and hatred of war years
– Wanted to be lenient on the
defeated South
– Favored letting them
reconstitute their state
governments and pardoning all
former Confederates except the
highest leaders
• Embodied his lenient position in
the so-called Ten Percent Plan
PROBLEM
• Many Northerners did not like the Ten
Percent Plan
– Every Southern state contained
thousands of people who opposed
the Confederacy--Unionists
• Northerners wanted to reward
Unionists and punish Rebels
• Were afraid ex-Rebels would
take revenge on Unionists as
soon as they had the chance
– Would also try to reestablish slavery and might
even start a new civil war
once they had regained
strength
NORTHERN OPINION
• Many Northerners did not want the South admitted as a full member
of the Union as quickly or easily as Lincoln did
– Wanted the South to go through a period of reconstruction first
• A trial period in which the North would essentially control the
South in order to make sure Southerners were sincere about reestablishing their loyalty to the Union before allowing Southern
states to become free and equal members of the U.S.
WADE-DAVIS BILL
• Congress thought Ten Percent plan was
too lenient and passed its own
alternative, the Wade-Davis Bill
– Made it difficult for southern states to
organize new state governments
• Majority of adult white makes had
to swear oath of allegiance to
Union first
– Full citizenship denied to any man
who had willingly served the
Confederacy
• Lincoln vetoed the bill and, in response,
Congress refused to implement Ten
Percent Plan
– Result was stalemate
Wade-Davis Bill
• Harsh conditions to rejoin
– States must re-write constitutions
– Outlaw Slavery
– Confederate supporters could not hold
office/vote
– Pledge loyalty to USA (majority of people)
– Vetoed by Lincoln (1864)
• Lincoln favored his 10% Plan
CATASTROPHE
• Congress and Lincoln still locked in stalemate when the war
ended (4-9-65) and Lincoln was murdered five days later
• If Lincoln had lived, he probably would have found a
solution
– A master politician who would have found some sort of
compromise
– Too smart and too ambitious to continue a fight if he
knew he was going to lose
– But now he is no more
ANDREW JOHNSON
• New president, Andrew Johnson, was
well-intentioned but less intelligent,
flexible, and willing to compromise than
Lincoln
• Started off on wrong foot when he
announced his own policy while Congress
was in recess
– As lenient as Ten Percent Plan
– Pardoned all ex-Confederates as soon
as they swore oath to support the Union
– Created procedures to set up new
Southern state governments and allow
Southern states to re-enter Union
– Hoped lenient measures would heal
wounds of the Civil War
TROUBLE
• When pardoned southerners
went to polls in late 1865 to
elect their new state
governments, they often
selected men who had been
high Confederate officials
– This upset Northerners
– Wanted some assurance
that the South would not
try to leave Union again,
but these actions did not
give them any high
hopes
BLACK CODES
• Johnson did not make any
provisions for freed slaves
– Left their future up to
new southern state
governments
• New southern state
governments had no desire
to help ex-slaves become
equal citizens
– All passed laws that
discriminated against
ex-slaves
– Called the “Black
Codes”
Black Codes
• Vagrancy Laws: Considered a vagrant if unemployed and could be
arrested if so. You could then be worked through convict labor.
In other words, you must have home and means of supporting that
home.
• In Mississippi, African Americans forbidden to rent or own land
outside towns
• In SC, black children could be “apprenticed” to whites if parents
did not educate them.
• Goal = Keep African Americans in slavery – insure cheap labor
supply; restore pre-Civil War conditions
• http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/recon/code.html
Black Codes
• Prohibited blacks from testifying
against whites in court
• Prohibited blacks from serving
on juries
• Prohibited marriage between
whites and blacks
• Banned blacks from mixing with
whites in public facilities
• If a black person was arrested for
vagrancy, they were hired out to
whites and forced to work until
their fines and court costs were
paid off
– Their labor was auctioned off
to the highest bidder
NORTHERN RESPONSE
• Northern Congressmen interpreted
Black Codes as an effort to restore
slavery in the South
– Realized that Emancipation
Proclamation and 13th Amendment
were not enough
– Blacks had to given the right to vote
and hold public office so that laws like
the Black Codes could not be passed
in the future
• Most Republicans were moderates and
did not want to fight Johnson and split
the party over this issue
– Hoped that they would be able to
reason and compromise with him and
thus modify his reconstruction
program with his cooperation
RADICAL REPUBLICANS
• Johnson refused to compromise
– Thereby strengthening the radical wing
of Congressional Republicans and gave
them the ammunition they needed to try
to dump Johnson and impose their own
Reconstruction program
• Radical Republicans were a minority in
Congress but they included some very able
men
– Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of PA
– Hated the South, blamed the entire
Civil War on southern slave-owners,
and were devoted to establishing Negro
equality
– Dedicated to restructuring southern
society by confiscating the property of
southern slave-owners and
redistributing it to ex-slaves
Congressional Reconstruction
• The “Radical
Republicans”
– Led by Thaddeus
Stevens
• “40 acres and a mule”
• Destroy south’s power
– Harsh requirements for
south to rejoin union
Freedman’s Bureau
• Created to help ex-slaves adjust to freedom
• Build Schools
• Provided clothes and food
– Vetoed by Johnson
– Overridden
Sherman’s Special Order #15 (forty acres & a mule)
• Created in Savannah, GA while war continued on January 16, 1865.
• They provided for the confiscation of 400,000 acres of land along the
Atlantic coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on which were to be
settled approximately 40,000 freed slave families and other freed AfricanAmericans then living in the area.
• The orders were intended to address the immediate problem of dealing with
the tens of thousands of black refugees who had joined Sherman's march in
search of protection and sustenance, and "to assure the harmony of action in
the area of operations".
• General Sherman issued his orders after meeting in Savannah, Georgia with
twenty ministers of the black community and with U.S. Secretary of War
Edwin M. Stanton. Brig. Gen. Rufus Saxton, an abolitionist from
Massachusetts who had previously organized the recruitment of black
soldiers for the Union Army, was put in charge of implementing the orders.
In the Fall of 1865, it will be overturned. However, many slaves were
working the land as early as 1861 with the authorization of the U.S.
Army(Ossabaw & Skidaway Island, GA).
Amendments
• 14th Amendment – grants full citizenship to all
born in the USA (including freedmen)
– Ended 3/5 Compromise
– South gained seats in House of Reps
– Southern states had to ratify before being readmitted
• 15th Amendment – Freedmen Suffrage (guaranteed
right to vote regardless of race)
– 90% of males register quickly
14TH AMENDMENT
• Congress passed 2 bills to protect Negro
rights in the South
– Johnson vetoed both bills
• Not because he was a racist but
because he believed
Reconstruction policy should be a
presidential, not a Congressional,
power
– Congress over-rode both
• Johnson’s stubbornness gave Radical
control of Congress
– Passed 14th Amendment
• Gave blacks equal rights and
pressured southern states to give
blacks full voting rights
– Northern states ratified amendment
but only one southern state did
RECONSTRUCTION ACT OF
MARCH 2, 1867
• Since 14th amendment was the foundation for all future
Reconstruction policies, Radicals realized that southern
states had to be convinced to ratify it
– Passed Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867 to do this
– Dissolved all state governments in South and divided
region into 5 military districts
• Each under the control of military commander charged
with preserving order and protecting the rights of ALL
persons
– To remove itself from this situation, a southern state had
to ratify the 14th Amendment and set up a state
government that granted full equality and voting rights to
blacks
Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment
• Johnson attempted to block Congressional
Reconstruction
– Vetoed 29 laws, overridden 15 times
– Johnson’s appointed governments ratify Black
Codes
• "This is a country for white men, and by God, as
long as I am President, it shall be a government for
white men.“
• Republicans unite to impeach Johnson
DECISION TO DUMP JOHNSON
• Congress also passed laws to
reduce Johnson’s ability to hinder
enforcement of its Reconstruction
policy
– Such as prohibiting him from
firing an federal official with
prior Congressional approval
• Johnson still had enough power to
get in the way and he did so as
much as possible
– It was at this point that Radicals
made up their mind to impeach
him and get rid of him once and
for all
JOHNSON IN TROUBLE
• Johnson had not committed a
“high crime or misdemeanor”
– But he had displayed an
incredible lack of political
judgment
• He then began to fire federal
officials friendly to the Radicals
– In direct violation of the law
Congress had just passed
– Gave Radicals real charge to
use to impeach him
• This and 10 other trumped
up charges were presented
to and approved by the
House
Johnson’s Impeachment
• Impeached for violation of the Tenure of
Office Act
– stated that a President could not dismiss
appointed officials without the consent of
Congress
– Johnson viewed the act as unconstitutional
– Attempted to fire Secretary of War Edwin
Stanton
IMPEACHMENT
• Impeachment trial held in Senate
from March 13-May 16, 1868
– Vote very close in the end
• 35 guilty/19 not guilty
• One vote short of necessary 2/3s
majority to impeach
• Johnson hung on to his job but it
didn’t matter any more
– U.S. Grant got Republican
presidential nomination
• Making Johnson a lame-duck
for the remaining 9 months of
his term
• Grant and Republicans swept
the country in November 1868